Selling out - milkers, kids, bucks for sale

I have no choice this time. My husband is losing his job. We can't afford to feed them. I do NOT want to take them to auction but I will if I have to in the next two weeks. 3 milkers, 2 proven bucks, 3 doelings, and 2 bucklings. Prices listed, but please make an offer! I hand milk the girls and they have free-feed alfalfa hay. They did better when they were also getting alfalfa pellets, but I'm out and can't afford to buy more, but have a barn full of alfalfa hay.

We are in Northwest Iowa and I can drive maybe up to four hours to meet someone.

Currently in milk:

W4Farm Amadala O'Bertha, AS1281988, 3rd freshener. $300 2nd freshening milked 2078.71 pounds (average of 9.24 lbs. per day) in 225 days. I am milking once daily now and she is giving me between 8 and 10 pounds daily. It seems to vary according to the weather. This morning she gave me 9.8 lbs. Gave me twin bucks this year who are also for sale (see below).

Purebred Nubian: 4-Z Lucile Louise, N1353530, 1st freshener one-year old. $100 Kidded 2006 with stillborn buckling 10 days early due to a beating by the herd queen. I'm only getting about 2.5 - 3 lbs daily as a first freshener, but I'm wondering if that's due to early kidding and a lack of proper homrone stimulation. Her twin sister was giving 7 - 8 pounds as a first freshener who kidded on time. She looks great, but she is petite.

The 2006 doelings:

Critter Basket Angel On High. $150 75% Saanen. GS1369839 This is Star's daughter from her trips this spring. Born March 11, 2006. Disbudded, CAE prevention, weaned. I am *really* pleased with her dam's milk performance and looks. Sire is Briarwind Marco Ignatius AS1351924 who has a terrific pedigree.

Critter Basket Nutmeg. $50 50% Nubian GN1369840 Born March 13, 2006 Dam: Critter Basket Ginger Spice. Sire: Lonesome-Doe Star Dust N1332098 Ginger was tested CAE positive. I was five minutes too late to be there for Nutmeg's birth, but snatched her up and she is being raised on CAE prevention. Given her voracious hunger when I gave her her first bottle, I don't think she nursed, but she's too young to test yet. Her dam was milking 8 lbs daily as a first freshener and had a nice, tight udder that couldn't *possibly* have held that much milk, but it did. Hoping Nutmeg inherited that!

Bucklings: American Saanen twin bucklings. Not yet registered. Born April 7, 2006 Dam: W4Farm Amadala O'Bertha, AS1281988; Sire: Briarwind Marco Ignatius AS1351924, 1 year old.(see above) We call the boys Titan and Casper. I was there at their birth, pulled them, and they are being bottle raised on CAE prevention. Would make terrific breeders.

Sorry you have to sell. It's obvious you care for your animals very much.Because of the drought, combines with the higher prices everybody has to pay these days, many folks are having to sell off their livestock.Putting in a good word for you and yours and know that you will have another herd in the future.

Just a thought, but if you really have a barn full of alfalfa hay, wouldn't it make sense to keep at least one of the milkers and a doeling? Unless your family really doesn't use much milk, the milk they produce should be worth more to you than the grain you'd have to buy to supplement the alfalfa, which you already have.

It's enough to feed them through the summer, but that's it. I still need another 500 bales to get through the winter. And then there's the time factor - I have to go get a job outside the home. Which leaves me no time to milk and do the other necessary things to be sure they're healthy. Three teenagers take up my evenings.

I've already gone over so many possibilities and finally had to come to the conclusion that my animals have to go. it isn't just the goats. I have to sell the sheep and the chickens, too. The broilers and the pigs and the lambs are all going into the freezer. The rest have to be sold.

Thanks for the thoughts and ideas, but I really can't keep them, much as I'd love to. And even a family of five can't drink 2 1/2 gallons of milk every day. The $2.60 a week for milk is a whole lot less than buying the hay - and I can sell any excess hay that I end up with, too. I have three week's worth of grain left and don't have the funds to buy more.

I understand about having to go back to work and having no time for the animals -- some years back, I ended up teaching full time at the Christian school my daughters were attending. After a few months of that, we sold our goats, too. But I was sure glad to get some again, when I wasn't working outside the home so much anymore!